A wake-up call for plant maintenance The new Simatic Teleservice Adaptor IE (photo) facilitates cost-effective remote maintenance of machinery and plants. In acute service cases or emergencies, an email can be sent via the device. The engineer then…
Among the many parameters measured and controlled in the chemical process industries (CPI), level definitely ranks high in importance, and in some applications, can even be critical. Accurate level measurements commonly guide decision makers in inventory and…
Vapor pressure is important to engineers throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Knowledge of a compound's vapor pressure is required in the design of storage vessels containing the compound. In hazard analysis, knowledge of vapor pressure…
Despite its potential to affordably reach valuable, non-critical data that would otherwise be out of physical or economic reach, wireless technology has yet to be widely adopted in the chemical process industries (CPI) because of the significant upfront resources that…
Acro 1.0 optimization software, developed by Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, N.M.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6518-550), has recently been published and is now available to the public at no charge. The software can be used to answer questions such as: “How will a drug…
Since their inception, data buses have been highly acclaimed in the chemical process industries (CPI) for their potential to achieve interoperability and substantial wire-savings - advantages that are particularly easy to envision for a theoretical case in which…
The reason for installing a bus is generally four-fold: to reduce costs; to speed and simplify control system design, installation, and startup; to provide alarming and troubleshooting diagnostics; and to gather valuable information about the process itself. …
Emerson Process Management (Austin, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-544) and Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D; Nuremberg, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-545) are expanding their system interfaces to enable both companies to support global fieldbus standards. The companies will exchange technology and engineering support in order to…
At ARC's 14th annual forum (June 26-28; Boston, Mass.), OPC Foundation (Scottsdale, Ariz.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-549) released its latest interoperability solution, OLE for Process Control Unified Architecture (OPC-UA). This new series of specifications aims to provide secure, reliable interoperability for moving data…
The usage of Coriolis flowmeters for measuring mass flowrates has become widespread in the chemical process industries, and the range of fluids with which these meters can be employed is likewise diverse. Among those applications, Coriolis flowmeters can readily be…